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US Elections

Election law expert on legal and political questions as states block Trump from ballot

January 1, 2024

Maine’s top election official ruled that Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot, citing his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The secretary of state said she made her decision after receiving three challenges from voters. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Rick Hasen, an election law expert and Director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project At UCLA’s Law School.

Colorado Supreme Court Rules Against Trump‘s 2024 Presidential Candidacy Under 14th Amendment Section 3

December 19, 2023

Explore the groundbreaking decision as Colorado’s Supreme Court rules against Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential candidacy, citing the 14th Amendment Section 3. Unprecedented and based on the Capitol attack, this historic verdict sets a legal precedent, barring Trump from the state’s primary. The decision prompts anticipation of a fierce legal battle and raises questions about the interpretation of the insurrection clause’s impact on presidential eligibility.

‘Classic Donald Trump’: CNN anchor reacts to Trump calling political opponents ‘vermin’

November 14, 2023

The Trump campaign defended the former president’s use of the word ”vermin” to describe his political opponents during a campaign rally held in New Hampshire on Veterans Day.

Fact-Check: Number of Counties Won in Presidential Election Doesn’t Determine Outcome

October 9, 2023

Democrats tend to win in densely populated counties, while Republicans win more sparse, rural counties. In 2020, the counties won by President Joe Biden had 67 million more residents than counties won by former President Donald Trump. Yet a social media post falsely asserts that because Biden won with fewer counties than Trump, “something isn’t adding up.”

Fact-Checks | Election Disinformation | Voter Fraud | Trump Lost

Number of Counties Won in Presidential Election Doesn’t Determine Outcome

August 28, 2023

Trump’s Co-Conspirators in Georgia

August 15, 2023

In addition to former President Donald Trump, the indictment handed up by a state grand jury in Georgia names 18 defendants. Here we identify them and what they are alleged to have done.

Online Post Misrepresents 2020 Wisconsin Voter Data, Turnout

July 12, 2023

Nearly 3.3 million votes were cast in the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin, which the state calculated as a record turnout of 73%. A social media post tries to cast doubt on the results by citing incomplete data and claiming it shows “a registered voter turnout of 94%.”

FactChecking Trump’s CNN Town Hall

May 11, 2023

Former President Donald Trump’s town hall event felt like a lightning round of false and misleading claims — most of which we’ve heard before — on voter fraud, immigration, classified documents and more.

No Evidence for Kari Lake’s Claim that Maricopa County Ballots Lacked Chain of Custody Records

January 11, 2023

A judge on Dec. 24 dismissed Kari Lake’s claim that there was no chain of custody for 300,000 mail-in ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona, during the 2022 election, yet posts on social media continue to spread the baseless claim. Every mail-in ballot in the county had a unique barcode and chain of custody documents to ensure security, election officials said.

Inaccurate TV Graphic Sparks Erroneous Claims of Election Fraud in Pennsylvania

November 22, 2022

Social media posts falsely suggest there was fraud in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race, citing a TV graphic that showed Republican State Sen. Doug Mastriano with nearly 500,000 more votes than Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro, but Mastriano trailing 41.6% to 56.6%. The graphic showed inaccurate numbers that were quickly corrected on air.

Ballot Printer Delayed Maricopa Voting, Contrary to Unfounded Claims

November 9, 2022

Tabulating machines at some polling locations in Maricopa County, Arizona, couldn’t process ballots during part of Election Day, though affected voters could leave their ballots in a secure box or go elsewhere to vote. But some conservatives, including former President Donald Trump, made the unfounded claim that the setback indicated an attempt to “steal” the election.

Counting Mail-In Ballots Delays Results, But Doesn’t Denote Fraud

November 7, 2022

Mail-in ballots have become a popular way to vote in the U.S. But the unfounded claim persists that mail ballots lead to rampant fraud and, if counted after Election Day, they are suspect. By law, many states don’t start counting mail ballots until after polls close, and some continue to accept them for days after Election Day if they are postmarked by that date.

Buldoc Revives Zombie Claim About Busloads of Illegal Voters in New Hampshire

November 4, 2022

U.S. Senate candidate Don Buldoc, a Republican, resurrected a zombie claim that has been repeatedly debunked about busloads of people coming from out of state to vote illegally in New Hampshire.

Unraveling Trump’s Unsubstantiated Claim of ‘Crooked’ Nursing Home Votes

July 28, 2022

Former President Donald Trump is making yet another unsubstantiated claim of voter fraud, this time relying on a disputed, partisan report to assert that “thousands and thousands and thousands of crooked votes” came out of nursing homes in Wisconsin.

Trump Ignored Aides, Repeated False Fraud Claims

June 14, 2022

At the second hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, former President Donald Trump’s top aides testified that they told him his claims of election fraud were baseless. What Trump characterized as “fraud” was just part of the “normal process,” as former Attorney General William Barr said in one instance.

Evidence Gaps in ‘2000 Mules’

June 10, 2022

A conservative film now playing in select theaters around the country isn’t “determinative, definitive” proof of widespread voter fraud, as former President Donald Trump has claimed.

Republican TV Ad Makes False Claim About ‘Dead’ Voters

June 9, 2022

An illegal ballot cast on behalf of a deceased voter is rare, and we could find no examples of it occurring in Michigan in 2020 or 2016. Yet, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan falsely claims in a TV ad that “dead people always vote Democrat,” and misleadingly suggests it is a widespread problem in his state.

TV Ad Attacking Brian Kemp Makes Unsubstantiated Georgia Election Claim

April 12, 2022

The Georgia secretary of state’s office is investigating a conservative watchdog group’s claims of illegal “ballot harvesting” in the state during the November 2020 general election and a special election runoff in January 2021. But the pending investigation is not evidence that “widespread illegal ballot harvesting” elected Georgia’s two Democratic U.S. senators, as a conservative super PAC’s TV ad claims.

Exposing the Holes in a California Recall Election Conspiracy Theory

August 26, 2021

Videos on social media suggest that holes in the return envelopes being used for mail-in ballots in California were designed to allow election officials to peek inside and toss out ballots in favor of recalling Gov. Gavin Newsom. Officials say the holes serve two useful purposes, including helping the vision impaired to sign the ballot envelope in private.

Barr Disputes U.S. Attorney’s Vote Fraud Claim

July 14, 2021

Former President Donald Trump says a former U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania was forbidden by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate voter fraud in the presidential election. Barr says that’s false.